Kiriko, I mean Shinrabansho Collab REM Overview

Introduction

The Shinrabansho Collab is returning to Puzzle and Dragons with some minor upgrades and evolutions. Unfortunately, it is mostly a story of too little, too late to have any real viability outside of Kiriko as a powerful sub on the new Xiang Mei . Even with the introduction of a re-coloured (non-awoken) Sakuya , Sonia , and Athena , the quality and quantity of the rare rolls is horribly lacking. The cards are quite underwhelming and it would be wise to not roll as you are more likely to pull more Uriels , Gadius , or collect enough MP for another Xiang Mei before rolling Kiriko (or anything of real value).

As with any Collab REM, any monster who can achieve at least a 5-star rarity can qualify as an assistant for Skill Inheritance. Therefore, you should think carefully before hastily selling your rolls. If you have not already, I highly encourage you to read my Skill Inheritance Guide.

Valuable Rolls

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Notes

KirikoHealer / Attacker
5 star base—-All
9 turn CD—-

Kiriko is easily the strongest monster to roll out of the Shinrabansho Collab REM as she makes a fantastic sub for Xiang Mei teams. Xiang Mei is an incredible leader, but her options for viable subs is restricted to fire-healers that do not remove heart orbs. This makes team building veryrestrictive and Kiriko is one of the few and powerful options we have. For further reading on Xiang Mei, I highly encourage you to read my full analysis HERE. Outside of Xiang Mei, Kiriko will have less value due to only 4 awakenings. Even though her active is powerful, you will have better options at your disposal.

What makes Kiriko valuable on Xiang Mei teams is her active is stronger than Gadius as she makes a tri-colour board and is statistically likely to spawn 6+ fire orbs and 9+ heal orbs for a full Xiang Mei activation. This cuts down on the need to use a supplemental active (aka Uriel ) to remove the light orbs, but you still retain that option. However, with the introduction of Skill Inheritance, Kiriko has a diminished value as an assistant due to Saria possessing a superior active due to the haste component. Thus, you will most likely only be using Kiriko as a sub on Xiang Mei.

Overall, Kiriko is a powerful roll, but will have little value for players who do not plan on running a Xiang Mei team.

Rare Rolls

These monsters, while rare and hard to obtain, are simply lacking in today’s powercreeped meta. They may have had more value a year or so ago, but will be most likely passed over for better options. However, you may still find some uses as alternatives for Skill Inheritance so they should not be hastily sold. Finally, most of these cards are not pretty girls and further diminish their value.

Considering this Sakuya is the rarest roll in the Shinrabansho Collab, you would expect she at least is on par or stronger than her Awoken form. Unfortunately, this Sakuya is bindable and only caps out at 36x ATK for a rainbow lead. That was strong maybe 1.5 years ago, but not now when we have things like Ra Dragon smashing things around at 144x.

Looking at her awakenings, Shinrabansho Sakuya has a little bit of every kind of defensive utility and this is nice, but you are still most likely to be hit with those abilities and thus having them go to waste (they have a 20% chance to block them). Therefore, we need to look at her viability as a sub or as an assistant for skill inheritance. As a sub, she is okay. Not amazing, nor weak as her active skill is quite unique, but relatively situational. However, as an assistant for skill inheritance, I can see her having some potential. Combining both gravity AND a one turn delay is unique and to the best of my knowledge, the only one who can do that. This is Fantastic when navigating bosses with resolve or specific HP threshold execution abilities as you can circumnavigate them much easier than either component could alone. You may not need her in every situation, but is something to strongly consider.

Overall, Shinrabansho Sakuya is a disappointing 8-star Collab REM roll. Outside of her unique and niche active as an assistant, you will probably not have much value out of her. Also, Awoken Sakuya’s art is far prettier.

First things first, I have/had a hypermaxed Athena (missing a skill up now due to the recent buff) for quite a long time as she was a powerful leader in her prime. Probably 1.5 years ago. And we now get an “upgraded” Athena who essentially has a SBR awakening added and a haste component on her active. Hooray? For a 7-star roll, this is horribly disappointing as the time and place for Athena has come and long gone. Mine essentially has sat prettily in my box for the past few months and will most likely stay that way unless she receives a sizeable buff.

Shinrabansho Athena does have large potential as the highest base ATK card when it comes to Coop mode and a TPA activation due to her Multiplayer Bonus awakening. Unfortunately, outside of a coop setting, her value is diminished because you most likely have stronger options for damage enhancement. Even though her base CD is modestly low, it may be hard to justify her usage on mid-end game teams outside of multiplayer.

Overall Shinrabansho Athena is a rare roll and may just disappoint you as she is not the more common Kiriko if you do not plan to play coop.

Red Sonia is another leader who has peaked and fallen over the course of Puzzle and Dragons. Her main faults are stronger tank teams have emerged as well as her own off colouring leads to essentially a team with only 5/6 dark monsters who contribute large amounts of damage. Granted Shinrabansho Sonia is the strongest version of Red Sonia to date, her usage as a leader is still lacking due to the wrong colouring. I guess you could pair with another Shinrabansho Sonia to try and pretend to be a Blue Sonia -style team as there are more red devil and dragon options. However, you may be very, very hard pressed to find committed friends.

The power of Shinrabansho Sonia’s active is quite impressive as you traded a single turn of cooldown for a turn of haste. This can be quite powerful for skill inheritance (for fire and dark teams) or as a sub on Raoh teams. Outside of Kiriko, Sonia may have the most usage in terms of viable placements on higher tier teams due to her newly granted SBR awakening.

Overall, Shinrabansho Sonia is a reasonably powerful and helpful roll from this Collab, but is not truly worth chasing considering the other cards that can come out of the dragon’s belly.

Saiga
Dragon / God5 star base—-
7 turn CD—-

Saiga is an interesting card as has an active similar to the Rider 1.0 series as his net effect is changing heart orbs into his primary colour. However, this does make him one of the few viable wood/light orb changers required for Awoken Apollo . However, with the wrong primary colour, his output and value is diminished. Looking at Saiga for various wood based teams, he can fit on either the row Sylvie Freyja as an okay sub. I say that he is okay because his active has poor value as he is removing heart orbs and only generates wood on a 7-turn cooldown. By comparison, a regular heartbreaker is on a 5-turn timer. Thankfully, his double TPA does provide some value for an Awoken Bastet team.

Looking at Saiga’s awakenings, his bind immunity goes somewhat to waste as he has no bind recover awakening nor heart generating active to help those who do. At least the presence of a SBR means you do not need to bring specific subs to easily achieve 100% immunity.

Overall, Saiga is an okay sub on mono wood teams, but is easily outclassed by most other current options.

Asmodeus is perhaps the closest to a pretty girl the Shinrabansho Collab will get. Although she is a little too demonic for my liking, she does have visually appealing artwork and has a nice heart/rose theme going on. Appearances aside, Asmodeus is a reasonable roll for a Collab 5-star. Her active has potential as a Durga sub (granted she is rarely used), but has lost ground to Lumiel due to her true damage component. Unfortunately, Asmodeus cannot act as a true rainbow board changer due to not producing light orbs. However, she can be a modest Sephiroth sub due to her devil typing, wood coverage, and her ability to spawn 4/5 elements needed for his activation along with heart orbs. Granted she will not allow him to achieve his full multiplier, but you will at least generate 36x ATK with a healing component.

Outside of a sub role, Asmodeus is essentially a dark form of Hathor . Granted a 20.25x ATK rainbow leader is not very impressive, but the tankiness component is powerful as you are able to stall out bad boards or survive dangerous mechanics. Furthermore, having each of your leaders possessing a full board changer is fantastic and helps alleviate sub constraints.

Overall, Asmodeus has more value than meets the eye and is a reasonably rewarding gold egg from the Shinrabansho Collab REM.

Balancile is an interesting card from the Shinrabansho Collab REM as they can play like a 5 orb, 1 enhanced team while retaining the option to become a row based team. A 12.25x ATK / 1.82x RCV row team is not spectacular as you will still be reasonably fragile. However, if you are able to stack numerous light rows, you may form a hard hitting team, but your main downside will be finding committed friends as there are stronger leaders available. The main downside of a dual colour producing active is that the secondary colour goes largely to waste and only has value if you can combo with an orb changer such as Verche .

I would be surprised if you found a viable sub placement for Balancile as their lack of awakenings plus underwhelming active will diminish their value and uses. I guess their largest asset is their assets, but that will mostly regulate them to a cheerleader role in your monster box.

Overall, Balancile is an okay leader for a early-mid game player, but will heavily fall off once you start acquiring awoken gods.

4-Star Rolls

There is not much to say about these cards as they can only be used for Skill Inheritance if they can be evolved into a 5-star form. Furthermore, they are mostly just a weaker form of the Norse God actives.

Conclusion

I always try to maintain a positive outlook when reviewing Collab REMs as I never actually pull them and mostly do so to further my own PAD knowledge and help those who do shake the festive golden dragon’s hand. However, with the Shinrabansho Collab REM, you will mostly be met with disappointment. The viability of pursuing Kiriko for your Xiang Mei team remains uncertain as the rates are probably low and the collateral rolls are mostly recoloured versions of outdated cards.

Let me know if you agree with my analysis and whether you will be wagering any magic stones on the Shinrabansho Collab REM.

Let’s not forget chibi Sonia who comes with 2 dark and fire rows and a SBR and a SB I think not too sure you can check for yourself to make sure.
Only difference is no haste to active but it is also easier to farm for the original skill

Great analysis btw
I pulled and did a yolo roll just for laughs and maybe a slight chance of rolling one of the golds like Sonia, Athena, asmodeus, Athena, Sakuya (cough cough haree) or kiriko but like you said I have a better chance of rolling another Uriel than kiriko. Only have 1 Uriel so far.

Chibi Sonia does not have the SBR which makes her less ideal than Shin Sonia. The extra row does not justify the chance at being skill bound. Also, if you are not concerned about skill ups, the haste component is stronger than the regular Ronia active.

Sakuya is DOA but I think you are missing the value of the multiboost for Ronia and Athena as subs. Athena with the shorter cool down especially is a target for inheritance in multiplay as she has the highest attack stats of any monster in coop with tpa activation.

That is a good point you bring up with Athena. It is still a niche factor to consider, but it can be something to bring to the party. I will update her section accordingly =) Thank you for your feedback!